Pennycuick gets a statue in UK, thanks to Chennai top cop

A bust of the British army engineer, who is believed to have sold his properties in England to build the dam, was unveiled in the memorial garden attached to the St Peter’s Church in his native town last Saturday. The bust was gifted by Chennai police chief Viswanathan. The white marble bust of Pennycuick on a plaque of 4 ft height was unveiled at the memorial garden, near the graveyard of St Peter’s Church in Frimley, Surrey, about 64 km from London.

“I just gifted the statue. It was Santhana Beeroli, a youth from Theni, who made this happen,” said Viswanathan, when DT Next contacted him. Santhana Beeroli of Uthamapalayam, who is studying in London, had requested the Church Ministry there to preserve the cemetery of Pennycuick and erect his statue. “This is the first time a statue of a civilian has been unveiled in England. A lot of bureaucratic procedure needed to be followed here for installing it,” he said.

Beeroil (31), after listening to several stories about Pennycuick from childhood, decided to do research on him when he landed in the UK for studies in 2011. Subsequently, he approached the church authority there and mobilised support from like-minded Tamils for setting up a memorial for Pennycuick, who is still revered as a ‘demigod’ in villages in south Tamil Nadu. After the dam was opened in 1895, Pennycuick returned to Camberley, his hometown, and died there on March 9, 1911.

As per Christian custom, the cemetery of a person would be demolished after 100 years. Last year, a goodwill team visited south India to study the need for preserving his cemetery and later it was decided to preserve his grave and to set up a bust in his memory, with permission from the Church and the Queen of England.